How the hell ?

I just came into possesion of something VERY similar to this, http://dvice.com

Mine has a 3 inch blade but looks almost identical. Anyone know the technique to sharpen such a device? I figured it would be the same as any other knife but my most expensive diamond stones dont even phase it. Its already the sharpest knife I own, but I was told that they can hold an edge far superior to any metal blade, which can last 10 times longer. The blade is supposed to be almost as hard as diamond. You can obviously see the survival knife/BOB knife potential I am pondering. Who knows, it may be a complete piece of S$%& but it is worth the effort to test it out a bit. My concern is, once it does get dull, how the hell do I re-sharpen it?

I figured I would ask here in hopes that someone else may have one. I am afraid I may attempt something stupid and end up ruining it by accident.

thanks

Bud,

What are you loaded or what? Send some cash my way, 1st with the $600 Kukri and now this?

This is probably something I would keep VERY low key. Pretty cool though.

I'll get back to you on this one.

Blitz

P.S.

Blades are cool

Sweet mother of all that is shiney and pointy, a blade of artifical sapphire! Hmm, I'm thinking you won't have to worry about sharpening it for a long time. On the other hand, I wonder how brittle it is. I wouldn't try prying anything open with it, but that's just a s.wa.g. (scientific wild-ass guess).

Can a person buy a belt sander with diamond-powder grit? That would probably sharpen it. I'd do a search on the properties of sapphires and see what you can learn.

Okay, curiosity got the better of me and I did some research:
Synthetic sapphire crystals can be grown in cylindrical crystal boules of large size, up to many inches in diameter. Pure sapphire boules can be sliced into wafers and polished to form transparent crystal slices. Such slices are used for high quality watch crystals, as the material's exceptional hardness makes the face resistant to scratching. Since sapphire ranks a 9 on the Mohs Scale, owners of such watches should still be careful to avoid exposure to diamond jewelry, and should avoid striking their watches against artificial stone and simulated stone surfaces. Such surfaces often contain materials including silicon carbide, which, like diamond, are harder than sapphire and thus capable of causing scratches.

So, a silicon carbide stone should do the trick...

-Blast

Exactly what I was thinking!!

Even though diamond sharpeners will sharpen it. The difference in hardness between that blade and blades. Means that the sharpening process will take a long, long, long time. The amount of material worn away will be very small.

Did I happen to mention that any change will take a lot of time and effort.

Actually traded it for 4 old 4x4 rims that a buddy wanted that were kicking around in my garage. I have no idea where he got the knife but one of the benifits of being in the Army is constant traveling. You would be surprized at the things I have picked up while abroad. I had no idea it was very expensive, I tried to look it up online but cant find a price. the rims cost me a few hundred bucks used 5 years ago and I dont even own the rig that went with them anymore.

Blades are cool. I am a big collector of knives, swords and other medievil and exotic weapons. This knife would have wound up in the collection but the allure of a knife that is never supposed to lose its edge is a piece of gear worth considering for its survival properties if nothing else.



Hey guy, thanks for the info. The silicon carbide set I have are so smooth that I never considered them when playing around. Mine are finishing stones so they most likly wont bite into the blade very well. I will need to find a rougher set. Thanks again

I used to have a Kyocera ceramic kitchen knife. Likely not as hard as that but close I'd wager. Kyocera only recommended one method of sharpening...send it in to Kyocera.

The issue isn't just that the stone needs to be harder than the blade...if the stone is too coarse, you can easily chip the blade badly. Finishing stones should be good but I'd expect to need to put a ton of elbow grease in.

FYI. I know how easy it was to chip because my wife used it ONCE and it was jagged as a saw blade just from her banging it around in the sink with some dirty dishes to wash it off. Kyocera wouldn't sharpen it for free because it had been mistreated.

Very, very cool! How thick is the blade on that and what kind of bevel angle does it have? I don't think I'd even want to get this near my arm to do a shave test.

What, did you pick that up from the Superman cave? Ky-el, here in our midst!

(no idea how to sharpen it)

More pictures of the knife.

Turns out they are made by some guy in Russia.

-Blast

I'd be real careful about sharpening that. For one thing, such crystals do not like chattering vibration along an axis, and it would be pretty easy to chip that edge, or fracture the crystal altogether. It is quite brittle, and has virtually no tensile strength, so you are not going to want to beat it against or with anything that isn't real pliable. The sharpest edge will likely be the result of longtiudinal fracture, much like an obsidian edge or in the style of knapping stones. It should be able to take an edge by ablation using diamond or silicon carbide, but such an edge will most likely be micro-serrated, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

If it has a good edge now, I wouldn't mess with it at all. If you do use it for slicing, try to slice rounded suraces rather than squared edges on anything with a brinell hardness of more than 40 or so.